NPC Drabbles
by Lizard Pie
Summary: Various blurbs based on the manga. Latest chapter: A continuation on Sam's inner conflict about Liam.
1. Preliminaries

Disclaimer: Characters gaiaonline

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"So we're all clear on the rules, then?" 

Edmund had elected himself as head of the committee –mainly because no one had bothered to run for the position, and likewise no one had bothered to vote for someone else.

The group muttered their responses –which were as unified a yes as they had managed all evening.

"Well, the final designs for your contraptions have been approved. Liam, you've submitted the proper paperwork?"

"Yeah, yeah…" He waved a hand dismissively and leaned back further in his chair.

Edmund frowned at the un-professionalism, but moved on. "Alright then. Well, to give you a quick peek at your competition, here are the designs."

The representatives from Aekea sat up momentarily, but quickly settled back into disinterest when they realized the blueprints were purposefully simplified. The teams looked over each other's designs critically. There was a brief moment of silence before quiet murmuring between teammates began.

It was, of course, Durem who decided to break the peace.

"Wait wait…." Natasha said, waving her had a bit for emphasis, "Gambino will be using _ice_?"

All attention in the room went to the third blueprint where, indeed, there was an enormous ice cube drawn in the tongs of the catapult.

"Well, water is so common," Sasha said with a shrug, "So we thought…"

"Well, yeah water's common," Leon told her, "It's a _water fight_."

"You could kill someone," Devin added, the tattoos in place of his brow pulling down.

"No, we tested it," Jinx told him, "It's perfectly fine…"

There was a pause, the other teams exchanging glances.

"Where did you test it?" Rina asked softly.

"The Wall."

Josie slammed her fist on the table, "I was trying to populate that area! There are people going there every day!" She pointed one of her manicured nails accusingly, "At the _least_, Gambino should be disqualified for this. They should probably be prosecuted –it's completely illegal."

"What about what you're doing?" Sasha snapped, "Bots are illegal in Gaia, they shouldn't be allowed in a competition like this."

"They're legal in Aekea."

"Well, everything's legal in Aekea."

The team bristled.

"Well, now, that is a good point. Perhaps we should have a vote on…"

"_No_."

Liam hadn't bothered to sit up, but one eye was opened angrily.

"I did twelve hours of stupid forms and I'm a few hundred thousand in debt. You're not taking my Bot away from me at this point."

"If it's illegal it's illegal," Moira said with a shrug. She smirked, more than happy to see her former lover in a position where he would actually feel hurt for once.

"You're siding with Gambinos now?" Devin asked.

There was murmuring from the other teams.

Moira shook her head quickly, "No, I would never!"

"Something wrong with us?" Sasha asked flatly.

There was a pause. It was, of course, Durem which decided to break the peace.

"You're spoiled, for one."

A fight erupted between the representatives as Edmund desperately tried to calm them down. Very quickly, though, he found it to be useless.

They should have known better than to try to have a peaceful competition between them.


	2. Jail Bird

Ian sighed, leaning back against the cold, cement wall of the jail cell.

The worst part of this wasn't that he hadn't done anything they were accusing him of, or even that he had no funds for bail so he'd be here until the trial was over. It wasn't that he was going to be represented by legal aid, and had a very real chance regardless of the fact that he was innocent.

It was that, right now, Sasha was out with _him_.

She'd been kissing Gino when he'd been dragged out of the mansion –completely ignoring what Ian had gone through to get to her seconds before.

Who knew what was going on right now…

No.. No, Sasha was better than that. She had morals and standards.

Nothing would happen.

And, at some point, everyone would figure out that something had happened to him. Everyone would realize what sort of injustice had happened, and rally to his aid.

Who the hell did Gino have?

He just had money. And, while that could get a good lawyer, it couldn't beat having the public on his side. The jury pool knew Ian, and they would believe that he was innocent.

He wouldn't go to prison for the rest of his life, he wouldn't at all.

But what if this ruined his reputation. What if he was pegged as an arsonist, and an attempted murderer, and Sasha actually bought into it. She'd never trust him again… she'd hate him.

He just couldn't have that happen. 


	3. Shop Talk

AN: I don't even care about the summer event anymore. The fact that I called Sam/Liam a long time ago, and actually saw that it's now almost canon, made my week. Very happy over here.

She could see his sandals making their way into the shop and not pausing for the waiting room; as they would have if he were being polite. He had her at a disadvantage, stuck lying under a car as she was. And, most likely, that was exactly as he'd planned it.

Sam could do nothing but ignore him and keep working.

The sandals stopped a few inches from her forehead.

"My head still hurts," Liam told her, "You have a hell of an arm."

"Thanks." She stuck her arm out, "Can you pass me the socket wrench?" She pulled it back under when the tool fell into her hand.

"I want to know what your deal was," he said, tapped his foot twice.

Sam paused for a second. Her eyes darted over the undercarriage as she tried to come up with something, anything acceptable. It took her a moment, but she finally settled.

"For wasting all that time on a robot you knew we couldn't do," Sam said, started work again, "I told you not to start before the rules even came out."

The loss of his pet project was still fresh, and he quickly forgot about her pause –if he'd noticed it at all. Liam sighed, "But we lost last year because I didn't have enough time to calculate the trajectory. I needed more time to do all of the math… It really would have been awesome."

"What was so much better about this one?"

Liam had been given an invitation to talk about what he'd wanted to all day and, naturally, he'd leaped upon it with all the eagerness he could muster.

If he hadn't come in asking direct questions, the chances were very high that he hadn't heard what she'd yelled at him. And, with enough prompting to go elsewhere, he'd forget all about the bruise he'd come across town to complain about.

Which was all probably for the best. Sam still wasn't quite certain why the idea of being spared from his constant hounding for dates had prompted her to violence. Why it seemed to bother her so much that she was the only person in Gaia he wouldn't try to get into bed. All those other girls would probably tell her to count her blessings and move on.

This whole thing was just confusing, and she'd be very happy when her workload had her sufficiently distracted and forgetful.

Sam threw in the occasional 'wow' and 'uh huh' to keep him talking.

It was probably better that they were like this. They could spend hours on mechanical chit-chat; there was no pressure to change because that was what was expected out of a higher relationship.

Maybe, in his own way, Liam was trying to preserve that. He needed someone to be normal with, so he'd kept them friends and didn't ask her out to the prom. Instead, he'd gone for every disposable girl he could find.

But she was probably giving him too much credit.

"Hey, I'm _really_ backed up," Sam said finally, "Do you think you could work on a car or two before you take off?"

"You know my rate," he said, tapped his sandal again.

"I'll order pizza in a minute and there's beer in the fridge."

His sandals made their way across the floor to one of the waiting cars. "Perfect."

And, for the first time all day, he was right.


End file.
